Long time no see

Yep I'm back again.  I've been busy just doing day to day things.  I've been selling things on Ebay and getting rid of other things just to get ready for the cabin adventure.  I've been sewing a lot and knitting a lot too.  Here are some pics:

Some socks for me.

Thought I better start making some socks as ours are getting rather hard to mend anymore what with all the holes :)  Next on the needles are some socks for hubby.  I also have on the needles a sweater for hubby and another one for myself.  Yes I multitask LOL.

Don't know if you can see this but I wanted to show you how to piece batting on something you are quilting.  You line up the pieces and sew them together.   

It's an excellent way to use up scrap batting for small wallhangings or table toppers.

This is the batting all sewed up and ready for my table topper.

And here's the top of the table topper.  I have since finished this.  Need to get a pic of the finished topper for you.  To make this topper you need 5" squares and 2 1/2" squares.  Place the smaller squares on opposite sides and sew from corner to corner (you can mark them on the back but I just winged it).  Cut off the excess triangles.  (Don't throw these triangles away.  I have an idea I'll share in a later post)  I squared them up to measure 5" and then tried out the placement on the table to see how they looked the best and then sew them together.  I used a 5" border. I used two packages of precuts for this and had plenty left over to make another one plus.  The squares I used weren't even from the same designer but I think they look great together.

On the home front, our chickens have started laying again.  Boy did we ever miss our home grown eggs.  We were getting them from an Amish farm but their eggs just didn't even compare to ours.  They keep their chickens penned up and ours have access to fresh grass - big taste difference!  We've been juicing and drinking our green juice every chance we get.  I give the pulp to the chickens.  They do not like carrots and their run is looking a little orange ;) but they do like the greens.  I even had some chard and parsley growing in the garden so pulled some chard leaves for the chickens and juiced some of them for us too.  I picked a little bit of the parsley (left some to grow) and dried it.  mmmm parsley potatoes mmmm.

I started some seeds and the plants are up and just waiting to get bigger and the weather to cooperate so I can plant them.  The weather today is pretty yucky.  It's turning colder and it's raining.  Last week we were over two inches above normal for the year.  Hope it keeps up and we have no drought this year.  I have to wait for a sunny day to hang my clothes out on the line so I did them yesterday since it was so beautiful out but the week before I had almost two weeks worth of laundry.  No fun doing that much laundry.  Took me all day.  

Cabin News-  We burned a lot of brush and small twigs.  We pulled up some rotten tree stumps but need to take our saw with us next time so we can cut some of them out.  The wet weather does help with this kind of job.  It would have been so much harder if the ground would have been really dry.

I guess that catches you up on my life, how's yours been?

Been away from the blog for a while...

To update everyone on how much I've been doing...and how exciting my life is...

The chickens are laying again...a lot.  I have several dozen eggs in the fridge.  We eat eggs almost every day for breakfast and I even made some egg salad the other day for lunch.  I really don't want to eat them for supper too, really I don't.

We planted cabbages, peas, lettuce, basil, potatoes in the garden.  I guess too early cause guess what, we're getting a freeze tonight and tomorrow night...hmmm hope we don't lose the blueberries and grapes.  I wanted to cover them tonight but hubby said they should be OK since it's a light freeze so he can't blame me if they freeze and all the berries drop off.

Dad and mom called yesterday to let me know that they had to rush to the hospital cause mom was having chest pains at 1 a.m.  Turns out she has a hiatal hernia and not having a heart attack.

We close on some new property we are buying tomorrow.  5 acres of land in Tennessee!  No house on it but we are planning on building one or getting a trailer (I don't like trailers, been there, done that and don't want to do it again :)  Hubby was thinking we might just build a pole building and then do the inside like we want but he wants to have a garage door...what?  Anyway he says then it will be easier to move in the furniture and appliances.  Guess  you can't argue with that logic huh?

My brother is moving to New York.  Dad and mom finally got him on the phone, hadn't heard from him for over two weeks.  I had left a message a couple of days after he had called me drunk.  He's an alcoholic and fell off the wagon again.  Glad he's OK.  Wish he would get his act together.

Our geriatric cat is on his last legs I'm afraid.  He's dragging his back leg and peed on our bed the other day.      I couldn't yell at him or anything, he's so old.  If he gets any worse, we'll probably have to take him to be put to sleep.  As long as he's eating and drinking, we'll keep him and love on him as long as possible.  Had to give him a bath tonight though he stunk so bad (all the peeing I think).  He's good about going to the litter box usually though.  I have shut him out of the bedroom.  I had the devil of a time getting the top pillow top clean (we have an air bed) and the top zips off.  It is so bulky and barely fits in the washer.  I put it outside to dry.

Hubby has been sick  but won't go to the doctor until after we sign the papers for the land.  I'm calling the doc to make an appointment when he's outside tomorrow...sneaky huh?

I got one cross stitched picture done.  I need to take some pics of it.  It's a fruit label and I'm making quite a few others to go with it.  I think I will make a quilted hanging out of them.  I'm still working on several sweaters and a pair of socks as well.  I get bored with one project and go to another one.

Well that's all I can think of for now.  Hope you had a very nice Easter!

Denise

DH socks completed!

Well I'm back again! Miss me? course ya did! Yesterday I went out for lunch with some of my buds. We went to a Greek restaurant and it was very good food and the company was wonderful. We are going to try to get together in March again.

After lunch I went with my friend Kathy to get some baby clothes at consignment yard sale type thingy. They had anything you might need for babies and toddlers. I helped her pick out some great clothes for her grandbaby. I have posted a picture before of Megan on here see below. It was fun looking at all the little bitty clothes and was especially great since I wasn't spending any of my money to do it :) lol.

After we were done Kathy dropped me off at my car and on the way home I stopped at Big Lots. They had some Looza juice so I got some of that. You never know what you are going to find when you go in.

I have taken some new photos. I think I am finally getting the hang of the digital camera although you have to forgive some of the pics as we are having overcast weather here. Today it has been raining. I went down to get the mail and pick up my morning paper and yes the paper was soaked again. The plastic they have covering it always seems to leak. Anyway here are some pics.

The first one is of an African violet I got for cheap at Home Depot. It is different from my other one that I have. Can't have too many plants. Well maybe if there is nowhere to sit or stand you should back off on the plants but other than that...

The next two are of our seedlings. These have gotten big enough to be out of the little domed house they were in and be put out on the windowsill in our kitchen. We just got another set of seed pellets so another 72 seedlings!

Here are two pics of a little beaded purse I did some time ago. As you can see it needs finished with a lining and a cord handle. It is beaded with delicas.






Here is a pic of the socks I did for myself. These were the first pair of lacy ones I did. The picture isn't true to the colors though sorry about that. They are blue, gray and white Opal. They have been very long wearing and although I wasnt too crazy about the color after I was finished I just love them. They go with a lot of different colors.


This is a pair I started for myself but found the pattern did not stretch enough for my fat ankles :( so my husband said that he would wear them. He has such little chicken legs...lol and loves bright colors. I need to get a pic on here of him wearing the hat I made him. He even went to the yarn store and picked out the colors.


These are some of his purple socks. They are very soft.

These are his blue multi-striped ones.

And these are the austermann ones that I call his autumn socks. Love those fall colors.

And this is the last photo for today. This is a little MP3 player sock I made out of some sock remnants. It is a very soft blue varigated. It even has a little pocket for the earphones. I need to put a cord on it but it works quite well protecting it and the cords from curious kitties.

Well that's all for now hope to have more later this next week to talk about.

Denise

It's been over a week

Sorry about that. I just didnt have much to write about I guess. On the 29th I went out to lunch with my co-workers. We went to Rosie's Mexican Restaurant. The music was very interesting. Mexican rap is just not right somehow. But we had a nice time although it was so noisy we had a hard time hearing each other. The food was very good and they even had vegetarian selections which I dont remember seeing the last time we were there. I got the spinach enchaladas. They were excellent. Some of the gang has given up the diet sodas which is great and are feeling much better and losing weight. Wish I could say that's what my problem is :( but I have no excuse for be so heavy other than just being too lazy to exercise. Today dh is out rototilling the new beds for vegetables. I ordered seeds from Bob's tomatoes and they finally came. I dont know about growing tomatoes from seeds but we'll see what we can do. We will probably plant some grapes this year too. The blueberries last year were so good. You just cant get the flavor from store bought.

On the knitting front, I'm still working on those darn OD soldier socks and started knitting another set of socks for myself. I will try to post some pics if I can get my camera to download. Vista is such a pain. Cant wait to see what they come up with next, it's supposed to be better although that's what they said about Vista.

My one cat, Penny (seen above in my husbands lunchbox), surprised me today by jumping up on my shoulder. She's only done that one other time and scared the heck out of me. She's such a buddy to me. Luckily she's sleeping right now or I wouldnt be able to type which in my line of work can be a problem. I'm a transcriptionist and not typing kind of cuts into my paycheck...lol. The boys, Molly, Roxy and Tikki, usually sleep most of the day although if Penny is lonely she'll get Roxy up and then they wrestle. I dont have any kids so they are it and life would be very empty without them.

Well til next time keep busy and hug those around you that you love!

Denise